Qualified Remodeler helps independent remodeling firms to survive, become more professional and more profitable by providing must-have business information, namely best business practices, new product information and timely design ideas.
Issue link: https://qualifiedremodeler.epubxp.com/i/103814
BUSINESS SOLUTIONS Mike Sloggatt With more than 33 years of experience in the remodeling industry, Mike is recognized nationally for his expertise at building better and building smarter. Today, he splits his time between high-end remodels near his Long Island home, consulting for builders, and teaching construction training events at trade shows, lumberyards and trade associations across the country. He is a regular contributor to industry publications as well as a featured presenter at the Katz Roadshow Frame to Finish Carpentry Clinics. I want to show that when I put it in, it was clean. But I think I can probably use a bunch of those in a promotional brochure of some type. Michael Williams: Annette, when you post them to your Facebook page, do you tag your clients in those? Or do you allow those photos to be tagged? Annette Mercado: We ask them to "like" our page. Obviously, we want everybody to "like" our page, but when you have a business page and you have people that "like" you, it's not your personal friend. You cannot tag them in the picture, but you can allow tagging on the page. Michael Williams: OK. Mike, Josh, do either of you have anything to add? Do you do much on social media for your business? Joshua Weir: I take site photos, a lot of progress photos, just to show the process. I like showing what's going on so people understand how we craft. Mike Sloggatt: I have a private gallery on Smug Mug, where I can showcase my work. I can make it unlisted, a private gallery, or a password-protected gallery. I can share a link with my customers, and they can see progress pictures of their job. I've found they like to share their pictures with friends. I would get a call saying, "Hey, I saw you did the Burns' residence; can you do that for us?" Michael Williams: Speaking of tracking, how do you normally track certain things? From your contact list and 20 January 2013 QR ForResidentialPros.com customers to budget and timelines? How do you rate everything in terms of customer satisfaction? Mike Sloggatt: I'm a terrible tracker. I'm just not organized that way. It's never been anything that I was really interested in because the work came in. You ask a customer, "Where'd you get my name?" And they say, "Oh, Mr. Smith gave me your name; I saw your job; or I saw your truck." We're not allowed to use jobsite signs in the village of Garden City, so that's why I had a big trailer with my name on the side of it. But I just wasn't good at tracking. In 30 years, we've never been without work, but where it all came from, sometimes I have no clue. Michael Williams: How do you follow up with your clients? Is it when the project is complete? Do you follow up a month later to see if the sentiment has changed? Joshua Weir: I send out a questionnaire. It looks at our budget and asks a lot of questions: Did we meet the budget? Did we meet the design scope? Were we clean and efficient? We'll ask for their perception of the team that was there. Was the family comfortable around them and with the process? Basically, it's an itemized list of all service-related items. I've also been looking into setting up maintenance schedules, where homeowners can buy a maintenance schedule for a year. Maintaining a project afterward keeps the relationship going; it keeps us in the forefront of their minds. That keeps the neighbors aware too — that we're there and taking care of things; caring for people is part of our program. Annette Mercado: Instead of collecting the last payment when we're done, we wait a few weeks and go back with the camera and a bottle of wine to give them as a gift. Then we sit around and talk about what they liked best about the project. We get more feedback from everybody when it's all of us sitting in a group talking rather than waiting for a questionnaire to come back. Dan Rush: I offer a lifetime warranty on kitchen tune-ups, or cabinet tune-ups, or whatever it is. In the end, I think it really goes back to what I said at the beginning: It's all about service, service, service — the service of developing a relationship with your clients. Joshua Weir Josh is the owner of J Weir Masterworks in Ventura, Calif., a licensed general contracting firm specializing in sustainable design/build projects and metal fabrication. He's experienced in the construction and design process from start to finish on residential and commercial projects, from conceptual design in his office, through project management and finish work in the field with his crews.